Crowdstrike by APR Win Saturday Abu Dhabi Race

Crowdstrike Racing by APR took a third Asian Le Mans Series victory of the campaign in Saturday’s 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi to move firmly into the championship lead.

George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen and Louis Deletraz entered the weekend’s season-concluding double header level on points with Cetilar Racing, but a non-score for the Italian squad means they hold a 25-point advantage and can secure the title with a 10^th place finish in Sunday’s finale at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The race had been shaping up to be a finely-poised contest between the No. 4 Crowdstrike Oreca 07 Gibson and the sister No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing example driven by Michael Jensen, Enzo Trulli and Tom Dillmann heading into the final stops, until leader Dillmann slowed dramatically on his in-lap.

The delay, which dropped Dillmann to fifth, handed Deletraz a comfortable lead he held to the finish with a winning margin of 2.029 seconds over the No. 20 APR Oreca of John Falb, Mattias Kaiser and Sami Meguetounif.

RD Limited trio Fred Poordad, James Allen and Tristan Vautier held the lead at various stages and were at the front until Vautier’s final stop, but ultimately finished third.

Crowdstrike by APR entered the frame during the third hour, as Jakobsen moved up to third behind battling lead duo Gustavo Menezes (High Class Racing) and Trulli, who had fallen behind after being delayed in the pits by an LMP3 car.

When Deletraz took over from Jakobsen with fresh tires, he quickly dispatched Theodor Jensen (in for Menezes) and set about chasing Dillmann – who at this point was third, behind Vautier and Mathias Beche (DKR Engineering). Longer fuel stops for the pair, combined with Dillmann’s woes, opened the door to Crowdstrike.

Formula 2 graduate Meguetounif closed the gap on Deletraz considerably in the closing stages with fresher tires, but was never close enough to attempt a move.

Allen had moved the RD Oreca into contention in the second hour and surged into the lead after passing Griffin Peebles (DKR), only to fall back again with a 10 second penalty incurred by Poordad for contact with a GT Ferrari.

Beche, Peebles and Alexander Mattschull finished fourth ahead of the delayed No. 25 APR Oreca, while Paul di Resta, Ben Hanley and Philip Fayer salvaged a disappointing day for United Autosports by finishing sixth.

Dominant early leader Giorgio Roda’s No. 5 United Oreca was waylaid by gearbox problems shortly after Gregoire Saucy took over in the second hour.

Lorenzo Fluxa, sharing the No. 88 Proton Oreca with Horst Felbermayr and his son Horst Felix, moved ahead of the fading High Class Oreca Theodor Jensen and Menezes shared with Jens Reno Moller for seventh in the closing minutes.

Cetilar Racing ended up 11^th after race control ordered that Roberto Lacorte, whose qualifying spin brought out red flags, could not start the race. Charles Milesi stormed from last on the grid to the lead inside the opening six laps before relaying Lacorte, but the car shared with Antonio Fuoco was never able to recover thereafter.

Inter Europol and WRT Take Class Wins

Inter Europol Competition edged out LMP3 championship rivals CLX Racing to take victory and set up a tense title decider on Sunday.

Having trailed by three points following qualifying, Alexander Bukhantsov, Chun Ting Chou and Henry Cubides prevailed in the No. 13 Ligier JS P325 Toyota to give Bukhantsov and Chou a five-point advantage.

Paul Lanchere, Kevin Rabin and Alexander Jacoby finished 15.914 seconds in arrears, with the last-named unable to catch Cubides after the final stops.

Polesitter Lanchere had controlled the race initially, but elected to take the first of two long stops at the first opportunity, while Bukhantsov continued at the front. This offset pattern continued throughout a race in which the Polish-entered car twice shed bodywork, and only after the final round of stops was Inter Europol consolidated in front.

The 23Events Racing Ligier of Louis Stern, Isaac Barashi and Matteo Quintarelli completed the podium, despite being ordered to pit in the final hour due to a faulty headlight.

Nick Adcock, Lucas Fecury and Luciano Morano (Forestier Racing by VPS) finished fourth and still have an outside shot at the title, with a 20-point deficit to Inter Europol.

In the GT class, Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Daniel Harper led a WRT 1-2 in their No. 69 BMW M4 GT3 ahead of the sister No. 28 example of Rinat Salikhov, Augusto Farfus and Gabriele Piana.

The first half of the race was controlled by the GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3 Evos, with polesitter Steve Jans leading teammate Abdullah Ali Al-Khelifa’s QMMF-branded car, but the BMWs grew stronger as the sun disappeared.

Thompson had undercut Ghanim Al-Maadheed (in for Ali Al-Khelifa) to move into second, then passed Anthony Bartone (in for Jans) into Turn 5. Farfus also moved ahead of Bartone, before mechanical dramas denied Fabian Schiller the chance of retaliating against Piana.

Schiller’s dramas handed third to the championship-leading Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 of Dustin Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall, who enjoyed a clean run where many rivals were waylaid by penalties.

Lulham took advantage of Hongli Ye’s Origine Porsche 911 GT3 R getting a slow exit from Turn 7, having just passed Al-Maadheed into the chicane, to move ahead with a bold move around the outside of Turn 9 for what became third and a 22-point championship lead over the winning BMW crew.

Laurin Henrich, sharing the Porsche with Ye and Bo Yuan, fended off Lucas Auer in the surviving QMMF GetSpeed Mercedes for fourth.

RESULTS: Race 1